Wine, sleeping pills, and a few other methods for better sleep I’ve tried on myself

Waking up in the morning without wanting to sell your soul to the devil to sleep another 5 minutes. If you look in the mirror and see your eyes in it… which are not red from lack of sleep, and without hatred for all living beings. Prepare and drink coffee quietly, without trying to brush your teeth, clean the cat’s box and call a taxi at the same time. Who doesn’t dream of a morning like this?

To wake up earlier, you have to go to bed earlier. But how? exclusively for the awesome.clubI will tell you what methods to improve sleep I tried on myself and what the result was.

My name is Liuda. And every morning of my life I’ve wondered why there aren’t day care centers, universities and offices that open only after lunch.

Because of my hatred of mornings, as soon as I had the opportunity I started working as a freelancer, being the owner of my time. Life satisfaction reached its peak: I could now sleep in the morning as much as I wanted.

As in the movies, if the main character has a period of absolute bliss, trouble was brewing. Which in my case materialized in the form of a new neighbor, who appeared to be 45, although her passport said she was over 60🇧🇷 Miss Natalia never used botox and cosmetics only used the homemade cucumber mask, but she always went to bed at 10pm.

Of course, it was likely that it had nothing to do with schedules, but with Mrs. Natalia. But after reading about the benefits of melatonin for female beauty and youthI decided to establish the hated but, according to scientists, beneficial sleep regimen.

At first I tried to go to bed at 10pm and fall asleep. But sleep wouldn’t come, and boredom persistently reminded me that there was such a thing as the internet, where I usually spent my time until 1 am or 2 am. So, I decided to try the ways that could help me fall asleep quickly. And they were:

aromatherapy sleeping pills alcohol the “smart alarm clock” app stop using electronic devices 2 hours before bed

I tested each method for about a week, not only assessing how quickly I fell asleep, but also how I felt the next day.

In the beginning, I read about essential oils that are generally recommended for improving sleep. I chose lavender oil because its positive effect on sleep was tested on students and women suffering from postpartum depression.

What to do: inhale essential oil vapors 15 to 20 minutes before bed, and also provide an overnight source of aroma. I lit an air freshener, put a few drops of oil on the pillowcase, and under it I put a small bag of dried lavender.
What effect did it have on me: I felt pleasant relaxation. It didn’t help me fall asleep any faster, but I did notice that I started to feel more awake in the morning, as if I had slept an hour or two longer than the actual 7 hours. Apparently, lavender oil acts on the quality of sleep: it makes it deeper and more constant.
Verdict: I’m going to use it, but along with other elements.

To choose a sleeping pill, I called a doctor friend. First, he told me to stop bothering him, because “sleep medications are prescribed for people with severe sleep disorders, not these imaginary problems of yours.” But after hearing my arguments, he recommended that I try passionflower extract.

I found a study that confirmed the positive effect of the drug, namely an increase in the deep phases and a decrease in the fast phases of sleep. Perfect, let’s get started.

What to do: take 2 pills an hour before going to bed — in my case, at 9:30 pm.
What effect did this have on me: maybe the deep phases of my sleep really got deeper, but i didn’t notice any significant changes after taking passionflower extract for a week. You may need to take the medicine for a longer period of time to feel the effect.
Verdict: I will not use it.

The bandage on the camera looks paranoid, but I’m calmer this way.

Our eyes recognize radiation from smart phones and laptops (also called blue radiation) as if it were sunlight, meaning the brain thinks it’s daytime and melatonin production slows down. This is why it often happens that although the body experiences fatigue, you cannot fall asleep.

What to do: stop using your smartphone, computer or any other type of electronic device 2 hours before going to bed.
The effect this had on me: since I was planning on going to bed at 10:30 pm, I turned off my laptop at 8:30 pm (for the first time in a long time, I normally put it on standby) and put my smartphone in my bag. Unfortunately, my willpower wasn’t enough to withstand such a long abstention from the internet, and I couldn’t carry the experiment through for a single day.
Verdict: Should I train my willpower, what more can I say?

To try this method, I chose a variety of merlot and cabernet-sauvignon.

Red wines, or rather the grapes they are made from, contain a substance that helps you fall asleep quickly. It is mostly found in varieties such as nebbiolo, cabernet-sauvignon and merlot.

What to do: drink 100 to 150 ml of dry red wine 2 hours before going to bed.
The effect this had on me: the melatonin and the general relaxing effect of the alcohol did their job and I fell asleep after 15 or 20 minutes. But despite going to bed early, it was difficult to wake up, and the urge to go back to bed lasted several hours. And besides, there was a side effect in the form of edema in the morning. But there were also advantages. One night I went to sleep in a horrible state of mind with many unresolved issues. When thoughts are so intrusive that you begin to feel them physically, there is no way to sleep. But that night there was nothing like that: I fell asleep after a short time.
Verdict: I will use it in special cases.

The application tracks your sleep phases: it records all sounds and startles while you are sleeping. This is an example of a daily report: at 5:54 pm I set the alarm for the next morning. The range from 10:30 pm to 5:07 am is the real time of sleep, blue and green mark the deep and light phases.

In the morning, half an hour before the scheduled time, the app detects the moment when your body movements and the sounds you make reach their maximum point (which means that the light sleep phase has arrived) and the alarm is activated (in my case, the song of birds). And to make it easier to fall asleep at night, you can activate a relaxing sound (I chose “white noise”).

What to do: download the app and put the smartphone nearby.
What effect did it have on me: I went to bed at 10:30 pm, set the timer to 5:30 am and turned on “white noise”. I fell asleep within 15 minutes (as the app shows) and woke up at 5am like the woman in the coffee commercial: easily and with a smile. I felt full of vigor: I made breakfast, put on a mask, read the news, ate, wrote a list of things to do, started washing clothes. I looked at the clock: 7 am.

Verdict: I will use it.

After I had completed testing all these methods, I chose the “smart alarm clock” and lavender essential oil. And red wine as heavy artillery when he had a particularly rough day. For a month, I would fall asleep with “white noise” in the background and the scent of lavender in the air, and wake up to birds chirping at 5:00 or 5:30 in the morning. Of course, several times, especially on Fridays, all methods failed because I would go with my friends to a club, a cafe or other traditional places on the weekends.

In the photo on the left: at the beginning of my war on sleep disorders; right: me too, but at the end of the experiment.

I lost weight Night vigils in front of the notebook or smartphone were often accompanied by the consumption of cookies or sandwiches. On the other hand, in the morning, there was no time or mood for breakfast, so I ate for the first time around 12 noon. Having changed the schedule, I stopped eating at night and started having breakfast at 8am regularly. The result: 2 pounds less.
I look better. I didn’t start to see myself 15 years younger, like Ms. Natalia, but my skin definitely looks more rejuvenated (maybe it has to do with the morning masks I started to apply regularly). The dark circles disappeared and the facial expression in general became more pleasant.
I started to have more time. Before the experiment, I did not believe that the hours of the day affected a person’s ability or desire to do something. But whereas before I started working on a paper at 10-11 am and, at best, finished the project in the afternoon or, in most cases, the next day, during the experiment I would sit in front of the notebook at 7:00 am and 8:00 am, and by lunchtime, the draft was already finalized. The most important thing was that I started working with a clear understanding of what I had to do, and not with a complete confusion in my head, as before.
I started to spend less time on the internet. Previously, I dedicated myself to series and social networks from 9 pm until midnight, and sometimes even longer, because I was at a point where I couldn’t do anything anymore, but I still wasn’t sleepy. Now, before bed, I don’t spend more than an hour on the internet. Sometimes it feels like I’m missing something, but I still don’t understand if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Even before I did the experiment summary, I decided not to go back to my previous routine because I started to love mornings. Going out to the balcony early and, listening to the happy song of the birds, see how the city wakes up, has its charm. That’s why I decided to stay longer in the ranks of larks, which also seem to live longer.

Despite all the perks of my new schedule, I wouldn’t strongly recommend it. It seems to me that it is like the love of olives: everyone comes to this in their own way and at a certain age. But if you decide to give it a try, you already know what you can do to lower your computer’s lid with a…